]]>The only retina display Macs you can get these days are MacBook Pro laptops. That’s because they’re the only Apple devices that support both high-resolution displays and the software scaling needed to keep text and icons both big and clear. It looks like that’s about to change thanks to OS X Mavericks 10.9.3 and 4k monitors.

9to5 Mac notes that the 10.9.3 beta includes support for retina display scaling on 4k monitors — those with resolutions from 3840 x 2160 or higher. Anyone using the beta software will see the new scaled option in the OS X display settings, which will effectively double the pixels for on-screen elements. Without scaling enabled, OS X uses a 1 to 1 method to display everything, meaning icons, text and controls are all very small on a high-resolution display.

Apple doesn’t yet have a 4k monitor of its own to sell, but does offer a Sharp 4k display for $3,595 in the Apple Store. The monitor complements the new Mac Pro, which is capable of driving three independent 4k monitors simultaneously. For now, however, those would be showing unscaled, small content. If the scaling feature makes it to the final version of OS X Mavericks 10.9.3, the content would then be larger and clearer to see.

]]>Is your relatively new MacBook Pro or Mac Pro having trouble with the Airplay function? There might be a fix. Apple on Wednesday posted a support document that acknowledges an issue with Airplay mirroring dropping or freezing when it’s used with a late 2013 MacBook Pro or Mac Pro over 802.11 b or g Wi-Fi.

The solution? Turn off Bluetooth. To do this, simply click on the Bluetooth icon in the upper right corner of your screen and choose Turn Bluetooth Off. Keep in mind this might not solve your problem completely — according to Apple, it might just “enhance the performance of Airplay considerably.”

And that might not be the most convenient solution if you’re using for Bluetooth for another product, like a mouse. Since the problem seems to be limited to the wireless b/g networks, you can also try updating to a new router that supports 802.11 ac. This is a newer networking standard that delivers faster throughput and greater range, and can likely solve the problem (along with giving you a nice speed boost overall in the Wi-Fi department).

]]>While innovation is certainly a good thing most of the time, it ends up costing more when the strides that innovation takes are long and wide. The problem for old Mac Pro owners is that the innovation that went into the new Mac Pro is happening all at once.

Migrating all your storage to Thunderbolt

The one thing missing from the new Mac Pro is storage space. They may be fast, but they don’t have much space to store things. Especially if you have been utilizing the four internal drive bays of the old Mac Pro. Your two choices for accessing external storage on the new Mac Pro are USB 3.0 or Thunderbolt. If you have been using FireWire 800 external drives on your old Mac Pro, you will need to change. You will be hard pressed to find many modern drive enclosures that support both FireWire 800 and Thunderbolt.

What you will likely end up with is something that supports both USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt like the Drobo. The Drobo 5Dcosts $850 and has five internal drive bays that would serve as a good desktop replacement for your old Mac Pro’s four internal drive bays. That, and it comes in matching black for those who pay attention to such things. Supporting both USB 3.0 as well as Thunderbolt, it can serve to bridge the data storage gap as you plan on upgrading to the new Mac Pro.

USB 3.0 for your old Mac Pro

The old Mac Pro however only supports USB 2.0, and that is not fast enough. In order to access your new external drive solution using a method that provides the best speed possible, you will need to utilize one of the internal expansion slots. All Mac Pros from early 2009 (MacPro4,1) forward have PCIe 2.0 expansion slots.

To bridge the gap and access your data using USB 3.0 consider adding a CalDigit 2 Port USB 3.0 Host Adapterfor $87.99. This will add two USB 3.0 ports to your old Mac Pro and allow you to access your new external storage solution as you wait to upgrade to the new Mac Pro.

Accessing your hard drives once they’re out

One of my favorite Mac Pro accessories is the NewerTech Voyager SATA drive docking solutionfor $74.99. It looks like a toaster and allows you to swap out SATA hard drives like they were removable media. This solution will allow you to continue accessing your files stored on the internal drives after you remove them from your old Mac Pro.

It supports both Firewire 800 and USB 3.0, which help it serve both the old and new Mac Pros right out of the box. Of the options available, it is certainly the cheapest way to bridge the external data storage gap. It also allows you to access all of your files via the fastest interface that comes with both the old and new Mac Pro.

Mountains of optical discs still exist

With the Mac Pro, Apple will finally remove the last computer from its lineup that comes with a SuperDrive. While burning discs may be a thing of the past, it is still likely that you have a formidable stack of old discs that you will want to access from time to time. Backups of old photos, documents and even music files that you thought you would never need access to again. When you do discover that you need to access these old discs, you will have to purchase something like the Apple USB SuperDrive for $79.00.

With a fully stocked new Mac Pro costing as much as $10,000 each, investing $1,000 in your old Mac Pro may be a more economically feasible, short term option. This may even give you some time to make the transition to the new Mac Pro a much easier task.

]]>Now that the new Mac Pro is available, Apple has seen fit to release a big update to Final Cut Pro X. Version 10.1 brings a number of new features, including full 4K support as well as optimization to take advantage of the dual GPUs in the new Mac Pro.

The most significant new feature is full support for 4K content. Final Cut Pro now supports video monitoring up to 4K via Thunderbolt 2 and HDMI on “select” Mac computers (these likely include the new Mac Pro and the MacBook Pro with retina display, which both use Thunderbolt 2). There’s also support for 4K content including titles, transitions and generators, so you can now upload 4K video straight to the Web.

And because Mac Pros and Final Cut Pro go so well together, another big part of the update includes optimized playback and rendering using the dual GPUs in the new Mac Pro. There’s a bunch of other new tweaks and features as well, and you can view the release notes here.

The update is available as a free download to all existing Final Cut Pro owners. For new users, Final Cut Pro X is available for $299.99 from the Mac App Store.

]]>Apple’s new Mac Pro is now available to order, but it doesn’t look like it’ll reach your doorstep by Christmas morning. As of Thursday afternoon, shipping dates for models of the beautiful new machine – which start at $2,999 for a quad-core model and $3,999 for a 6-core option – have slipped to February 2014, a pretty far cry from the Dec. 30 estimate when the Pros first went on sale Thursday morning. It ships to stores as well, so it looks like February is the earliest you can hope to get one.

Out of curiosity, I selected the 6-core model and fully tricked it out with all of the highest-end options available. And if you want an ultra-high-end super-computer, it’s going to cost you. A fully loaded Mac Pro costs a staggering $9,599 – and that’s without a monitor, mouse or keyboard. Throw in a 32” Sharp 4K display (because why not?), along with a wireless mouse and keyboard, and the total climbs to $13,332. And you might want to think about throwing in some AppleCare to protect that investment.

That’s no small price to pay, but hey, at least you’ll know you’ve got the most powerful configuration available – until next year.

This post was updated at 12:20pm to show that shipping dates have been pushed to February 2014.

]]>I now know what I want for Christmas. Apple’s gorgeous new Mac Pro goes on sale starting tomorrow, Thursday, December 19. That means you should be able to bring one home in time for the holidays – if you’ve got the cash, that is. Apple’s ultra-high-end new computer starts at a whopping $2,999, and goes up quickly from there.

Designed around a unified thermal core, the new Mac Pro packs an incredible amount of power into an aluminum enclosure that’s just 9.9-inches – it’s one-eighth the volume of the previous generation. It actually looks a lot like an artistic modern wastepaper basket, if that’s your sort of thing. But that innovation comes at a a price. Here’s a quick breakdown of the configurations available:

You can also configure your machine to order, with options that include faster 8-core or 12-core Intel Xeon E5 processors, AMD FirePro D700 GPUs with 6GB of VRAM, up to 64GB of memory and up to 1TB of PCIe-based flash storage.

]]>During its first major event of 2013, Apple used its Worldwide Developers Conference to show off sweeping changes to the design of its flagship mobile software, iOS. iOS 7, which will be released this fall, is “the biggest change to iOS since the original iPhone,” CEO Tim Cook said while introducing the new software alongside several Apple executives.

Cook and crew also used the event to show off new Mac concepts, including a battery-friendly revamp for the MacBook Air and a futuristic cylinder-type design for the Mac Pro, its last remaining professional desktop product. Our coverage from Monday’s event follows below, and we’ll update this post as more stories emerge from what appeared to be a pivotal event in the history of iOS.

Soon you’ll be able to read iBooks on your Mac – Apple debuted iBooks for Mac at WWDC in San Francisco Monday. The desktop app will be available as part of the launch of OSX Mavericks this fall and will allow purchasing as well as reading.

Apple shows off major design overhaul for iOS 7 – Apple announced changes on Monday to iOS 7 at the company’s WWDC conference in San Francisco. The company has revamped and refreshed the overall design and feel of the operating system.

With what most perceived as a minor update in 2012, the Mac Pro had gone two years prior to that before receiving a meaningful upgrade. Still, Apple has a loyal following among Mac users looking for power. Apple CEO Tim Cook stated last year that Apple is working on “something great” in reference to the Mac Pro, and we’re still waiting for that.

While things are not quite what they used to be, the company does still have a shot at impressing its seemingly forgotten Mac Pro customers by putting the power back into its Macs.

To see how big of a gap we are talking about, we must first look to see how much faster today’s PCs are when compared to the Mac.

Benchmarking the current gap between Macs and PCs

Comparing Macs to Macs – If you look at Primate Labs, a long standing provider of benchmarking software on the Mac, you can see how each of Apple’s computers stack up against each other. Looking only at this list, one would think that Apple’s older lineup of Mac Pros is still doing quite well being situated at the top of the GeekBench’s performance list. That is until you look outside of Apple’s product line and see how the Intel Xeon X5675 chip that powers the top performing Mac Pro compares to other Intel chips.

Intel chipset benchmarks scores – One such benchmark to look at when comparing Intel chip performance is the PassMark CPU Mark. Using EveryMac.com as a guide to figure out what Intel chips are used in each of Apple’s Macs, you will find that the chips being used in today’s Macs are not among the fastest currently available. With a CPU Mark of just 9,382 for the fastest chip available in the Mac Pro, and a score of 9,461 for the fastest iMac chip, Apple comes in at roughly two-thirds the performance of the top rated Intel chip scoring 14,969. Keep in mind that this top performing chip is Intel’s Xeon E5-4650 with a street price around $4,000, for just the chip.

Intel PassMark CPU Mark Scores

A fair comparison to PCs – Looking at the chips used in last years round up of top performing PCs from both PC World and PC Magazine, the Falcon Northwest Mach V and the Maingear Shift Super Stock both used Intel’s Core i7-3960X processor. Since then, each PC company now offers an updated configuration with the slightly faster Intel Core i7-3970X. It is also worth noting that the newer i7-3970X is currently available in Dell’s own Alienware line of desktop computers. Each of these new systems sell at prices comparable to Mac Pros. With a CPU Mark score of 12,976, the i7-3970X is still faster than the CPUs used inside of Apple’s top performing Mac’s.

Why Apple should design its own Mac chips

Apple has two options to consider when it comes to increasing the performance of its Macs. A short-term tactical play where it catches up with the PC by continuing to make modest upgrades to its existing lineup of Macs, or a long-term strategic play to surpass the competition by boldly stepping away from the component-based chip market all together.

Matching the competition - The first option is to simply match the fastest PCs in performance by updating the chips being used inside Apple’s Mac lineup. This tactic of adamantly keeping pace with Intel’s release schedule has been employed by Apple in the past and every other computer vendor to keep making their machines performing slightly faster each year. So long as Apple continues to use off-the-shelf chips from the likes of Intel, AMD, Nvidia and ATI, Macs will never again be faster than PCs since everyone uses the same exact chips.

Apple is not only not losing the laptop and desktop speed race versus the PC at the moment, it appears that it’s not even interested in competing in it. Apple’s own marketing shows how its newer hardware is only faster than its older hardware; as old Macs race against new Macs, PCs have meanwhile moved ahead in a race all their own. If Apple truly does want to get back out in front of the PC market, and produce a lineup of Macs or even one Mac that outpaces the fastest PCs available, it will have to leave the off-the-shelf chips behind and show the world how to best take advantage of all of the changes we have seen in technology over the last few years.

Taking a chip design and making it your own is not something that just any company can do. Apple has proven that they can do it with ARM-based chips on its mobile platform. The question remains if Apple can successfully pull off the same feat with a chip design that places them in the forefront of desktop processor speed.

]]>On March 1, Apple has to stop selling the Mac Pro in Europe because of new safety regulations that will soon go into effect. Apple just informed its European resellers of this news. While Apple has to stop selling new Mac Pros as of March 1, its local resellers in EU countries can keep selling their remaining stock until they run out.

Here’s the text of the email Apple sent its resellers:

As of March 1, 2013, Apple will no longer sell Mac Pro in EU, EU candidate and EFTA countries because these systems are not compliant with Amendment 1 of regulation IEC 60950-1, Second Edition which becomes effective on this date. Apple resellers can continue to sell any remaining inventory of Mac Pro after March 1.

Apple will take final orders for Mac Pro from resellers up until February 18th for shipment before March 1, 2013.

Countries outside of the EU are not impacted and Mac Pro will continue to be available in those areas.

This is not the kind of decision that’s going to have many consumers up in arms: the vast majority of Apple computer buyers go with a notebook or the more consumer-friendly all-in-one iMac. And Mac Pro buyers have gotten used to the lack of attention to the product line: Apple’s last update to the Mac Pro was June 2012, and even then it was incremental.

In simply stopping shipments of this desktop to EU countries, it’s clear Apple is gearing up for something newer and better later on. Last summer CEO Tim Cook told a group of Mac Pro users in an email that Apple is “working on something really great for later next year.”

In the meantime, Mac sales have slowed for Apple: in the fourth quarter of 2012 Apple sold 4.1 million Macs, 22 percent fewer than the same quarter in 2011.

]]>The Mac Pro has long remained a professional tool in an otherwise consumer-focused line of Apple computers. With a significantly higher starting price tag than its iMac cousin, and a wide range of user upgradability options that most Apple products don’t have, it makes sense that a report Monday (via AppleInsider) claimed the Mac Pro might soon be put out to pasture. But would Apple really close the door on its most muscular and expandable Mac model?

Sales

First, there are the reasons Apple executives themselves gave for considering shelving the Pro. Reportedly, the sales of these expensive computers have dwindled to the point where making them isn’t nearly as profitable for Apple as it once was. Apple has never been particularly sentimental about keeping a computer around when it isn’t profitable; consider the fate of the G4 Cube, for example, which was introduced to the world in July 2000, and then discontinued just a year later after failing to impress the buying public. Desktop sales in general have been flagging, with notebooks and tablets picking up the slack.

Apple has been cited as bucking the downward trend in desktop sales, but the Mac Pro isn’t the computer whose sales we hear broken out during conference calls or at Apple special events. That honor is reserved for the iMac, Apple’s all-in-one that’s proving there’s still a market for affordable, sleek desktop computers.

The reason the Mac Pro doesn’t get a shout-out during Apple’s events is probably because Apple has nothing to crow about, because if there’s good reason to talk about how well a product is selling, Apple usually isn’t shy about doing so.

Thunderbolt

Apple may also be able to shore up the demand for added expandability using Thunderbolt technology, which is another point reportedly raised in discussion among Apple execs. Thunderbolt expansion devices will soon allow video capture cards and other devices that use PCI Express expansion connectors to be plugged in outside of the case to an iMac, MacBook or Mac mini. Thunderbolt also allows the direct connection of much faster RAID storage devices, and multiple displays, something the internal PCI Express slots in the Pro once provided exclusive access to.

Anticipating the mass market curve

The Mac Pro could still be a very useful piece of tech for a demanding set of niche customers, but those buyers are less and less Apple’s target market. Apple showed it wants to keep focus on the consumer end of its business when it discontinued the Xserve back in Nov. 2010, and it redesigned Final Cut Pro with non-professional end users in mind. In both cases, it eventually made concessions to try to ease the blow for professional users (Mac mini server model and promised updates to Final Cut Pro X).

Apple succeeds mainly because it keeps its product lines tight, so that it can focus on doing a few things very well, instead of many things adequately. This past fall, it even skipped a substantial iPod touch update, which is the biggest seller of its media player line, which indicates it could already be anticipating a future where the iPhone completely scratches that itch. The Mac Pro, which is much farther away from its core business, could hardly merit more attention.

In the long run, it’s better for Apple’s core business (and where its future customers will mostly be) to focus on making products with wide appeal that can also serve the professional needs of the few with somewhat pricey add-ons, than to sell a prohibitively expensive machine that only a select few can justify buying to begin with.